Detail

Keywords

Gene Expression Regulation; Innate Immunity; Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques; Nucleic Acids

Research interests

Nucleic acids are versatile messenger molecules. The most prominent way of encoding information is their base sequence, that is translated by the ribosome machinery to produce proteins. Additionally, a great variety of nucleic acid modifications at the bases or internucleotide linkages as well as the nucleic acid structure and conformation can encode different information that is read out by a large set of nucleic acid sensors and processing enzymes. Within collaborative interdisciplinary research projects, I aim to harness this great potential of nucleic acids to develop new drug designs and diagnostic tools.

• Within the young independent researcher group bioSTAR, we aim to develop programmable chemical probes that are capable of sensig specific RNA sequences followed by a bioorthogonal reaction. As a first application we want to use them to target bacterial RNA sequences and test their potential as novel antibiotic drugs.
• In a second project with TU Wien and Massachusetts General Hospital we aim for new strategies that allow to track labeled biomolecules across physiologic space and time. We are working on a set of tools that can convert compact, durable chemical tags into oligonucleotide probes on demand, enabeling ultrasensitive molecular detection and seamless integration with sequencing/amplification-based biotechnologies.

Grants

• Click-activatable circular oligonucleotides for bioorthogonal translation (2021)
  Source of Funding: WWTF (Vienna Science and Technology Fund), Life Sciences - Chemical Biology
  Principal Investigator
• bioSTAR (2019)
  Source of Funding: FWF (Austrian Science Fund), Young Independent Researcher Group
  Principal Investigator

Selected publications

1. Kuba, W. et al. (2022) ‘Oxidative Desymmetrization Enables the Concise Synthesis of a trans‐Cyclooctene Linker for Bioorthogonal Bond Cleavage’, Chemistry – A European Journal, 29(3). Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/chem.202203069.
2. Goldeck, M. et al. (2022) ‘How RNA editing keeps an I on physiology’, American Journal of Physiology-Cell Physiology, 323(5), pp. C1496–C1511. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1152/ajpcell.00191.2022.
3. Engel, C. et al. (2017) ‘RIG-I Resists Hypoxia-Induced Immunosuppression and Dedifferentiation’, Cancer Immunology Research, 5(6), pp. 455–467. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1158/2326-6066.cir-16-0129-t.
4. Goldeck, M. et al. (2014) ‘Efficient Solid-Phase Synthesis of pppRNA by Using Product-Specific Labeling’, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 53(18), pp. 4694–4698. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201400672.
5. Ablasser, A. et al. (2013) ‘cGAS produces a 2′-5′-linked cyclic dinucleotide second messenger that activates STING’, Nature, 498(7454), pp. 380–384. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature12306.